Indonesian political parties make pact to clear way for leading presidential candidate
The National Democrat party has joined forces with the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle to secure the nomination of Jakarta governor Joko Widodo in July's presidential poll
A small Indonesian political party has struck a deal with the main opposition party, clearing the way for its popular presidential candidate to run for president in July, a senior official of the smaller party said on Sunday.
In Wednesday’s parliamentary election, the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P), whose presidential candidate is the popular governor of Jakarta, Joko Widodo, fell short of securing the 25 per cent of votes needed to nominate its own candidate without the support of another party for the July 9 election.
The main opposition party’s failure to secure a decisive victory in the legislative elections led to some concern in financial markets that Indonesia was in for a period of political horse-trading. Both stocks and the rupiah currency lost ground after the vote.
But on Sunday, the small National Democrat (NasDem) party, which is led by media tycoon Surya Paloh, said it had struck a deal with the PDI-P, clearing the way for Joko Widodo to run in July, when he is widely seen as likely to win.
“We hope to be able to build a platform of restoration for Indonesia through our new government.”
“NasDem has a similar ideology to that of PDI-P and we have been communicating intensively for months,” Willy Aditya, vice-secretary general of NasDem, told reporters.
“We hope to be able to build a platform of restoration for Indonesia through our new government,” he said.
